Darwin - A Pair of Scenarios

A few weeks ago I hosted a pair of games from my forthcoming scenario booklet on the American involvement at Darwin. These scenarios featured the rather green pilots of the 33rd Pursuit Group against Pearl Harbor veterans from the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force. In both scenarios, as was historically, the Americans are placed in an impossible position. I was called out for this by a member of the Check Your 6! discussion group, complaining about play balance. War is not play balanced, but the premise behind these two scenarios is to have the players change sides and keep track of victory points by player and by team. And in this aspect, the scenarios now become balanced as players vie to obtain points.

I was, however, hesitant to spring these two scenarios on my gaming buddies as now I was worried about how they might react to the impossible American setup. 

The First Game (Zeros, Zeros, Zeros!)

In the first game I flew the single P-40 flight leader and I played it rather historically as I dove through the oncoming A6M2s and fled the table, securing a few victory points for myself. The other two American players took on the Japanese headfirst, which did not bode well.

The American setup...

...and the Japanese.

Nice formation there, eh?

Off to the races I go, leaving my fellow players to take on the swarm of A6M2s.

Not looking good, eh Yank?

The game ended with nearly all P-40s shot down. I grabbed two victory points with my rapid exit, which did pull some of the A6M2s away from the remaining Americans.

The Second Game (The Death of A Flight)

This game was more of a bounce, with the Japanese coming in from the northwest, turning to take on A Flight, which had landed, and now was scrambling to get airborne after hearing the radio calls that Darwin was under attack. The goal for the Americans? Survive and get off the board to obtain VPs. Bear in mind the American players for this scenario were the Japanese players in the first game, so they now felt the frustration of the historical event. I hope they banked enough points from Game One!

The American flight leader was able to get off a friendly edge, earning victory points. He was the overall winner of the two games, with a few others coming close. The feedback from my experience band of CY6! brothers was actually favorable - they appreciated being with the advantage and the disadvantage, and thought the tracking of points was a motivator to do well as the Japanese and to survive as the Americans. Guess that dude on the discussion group doesn't know what he is talking about.

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

Planes - Flight Deck Decals

The American conga line, taking off at Speed 1, TAL 1.

Three shotai (or one chutai if you prefer) in actual shotai formation.

Some of the Americans decided to move towards the Japanese. Why, oh why?

Which simply made it easier for the Japanese to close in. The American flight leader, watching my epic performance in the first game, is trying to get offboard.

A P-40 sandwich. IIRC he survived via robustness rolls and poor Japanese shooting.

Project Gun-Val AAR

Last weekend I hosted the "Hagerstrom's Intercept" scenario from my Project Gun-Val scenario booklet. We actually ran the game twice, because in both instances, while the Soviet...er, em...the North Koreans have the jump, the Americans were seemingly invincible. In the first game the American reversed on the first turn, and the Soviets got into a turning fight, which did not bode well as the F-86F-2 Gun-Val machine came on and was able to dispatch a MiG rather easily. The game was over in seven turns!

So, we revered sides and tried it again. The Soviet players started a bit father away which made the Americans wary of doing a reversal, but again the MiGs had a rough time of it. Of course, in both games, a couple of different die rolls and the games would have been much different.

We played with my modified MiG armament as well as used a new rule (to us) - if one dives one cannot shoot at a higher target, and if one climbs one cannot shoot at a lower target. While both games were short, this actually prevented the games from ended even sooner.

Not a lot of detail in this one, but here are some pics!

Second game setup with a little PR

First game setup - those Sabres are going to reverse and create some havoc

And now the MiGs try turning

But even though this looks ideal, it doesn't end well

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

Planes - Raiden and MSD Games

Conversion Work

Admittedly one of the easiest conversions to tackle....

I picked up a mix of items from a fellow historian who also happens to be a gamer. In the mix were eight Messerschmitt Bf 109E models, metal castings from Raiden. On three of the planes some of the wing 20mm cannon barrels were broken off, and I could not decide what to do with them. Yes, I like my barrels to be present, thank you very much. After a little thought I have decided to convert them into the earlier E-1 variant, one that was equipped only with four 7.92mm MG 17 machineguns (two in the fuselage and one in each wing).  The wing machineguns were flush with the leading edge of the wing, so the lack of barrels is a good thing. While the Raiden castings are the later E-4 variant with a squared off canopy, removing the cannon barrels as well as the underwing bulge created by the cannon, provides a "good enough for government work" version of the E-1 variant. The E-1 was used during the Spanish Civil War and stayed in service into late summer of 1940. 

Clean up phase

Using an X-acto knife, a flick of the wrist removed the remaining barrels. I also removed both barrels from a fourth Messerschmitt so that I could have a schwarm of converted models (think I will do the other four as Romanian Messerschmitts as Sieben Schwaben Spiele have decals for the E-3 model). The X-acto knife also did a decent job cutting off the cannon bulges, and the remaining nubs were then filed flush with the underside of the wing.

While the planes already had a coat of primer, the filing took some of the paint off of the wings - and I did some cleanup work on seam lines and the like - so a new coat of primer was applied. Next was to start painting the proper RLM colors to the miniatures. As I already have some decals for the Bf 109 in Spain (Scale Specialties Code 300AC-GER006 on the I-94/Raiden site), and the fact that the scheme is relatively simple, I had decided to do four Legion Condor versions, but then I also realized that I could just go with German markings to use them in 1940 - the E-1, E-3, and E-4 models were used in France and the skies over Britain.* 

Regardless of how I use the E-1s, the undersurfaces are all painted in RLM 65 (hellblau - light blue) went on the undersurfaces.

Vallejo Model Air 71.255 applied and the removal of the 20mm barrel and bulge.

As I make a final decision on what theater to use these modified Messerschmitts I will post more on this conversion.

* I am working on a 1940 booklet that feature scenarios of Swiss neutrality violations and also included will be scenarios that highlight Groupe de Chasse Polonais I/145 flying the Caudron-Renault CR.714.